Remembering Sammy

Rob G. over at The Cub Reporter has a great article up today entitled "Can We Forgive Sammy?" It's very well written and talks about how a lot of Cubs fans are still mad at Sammy for the way his tenure with the Cubs ended. This, despite all of the great baseball Sammy provided to Cubs fans over the years. The reason Rob wrote the article about Sammy is because the Cubs are taking on the Rangers (Sammy's new team) today in Cactus League action and it will be the first time Sammy has faced his old club since leaving the northside.

I have to admit that I still have some hard feelings toward Sammy. His corked bat incident was an embarrasment, the steroid allegations, particularly his performance before Congress, was distrurbing, and the way he quit on his team at the end of the 2004 season were all sore points for me. Even so, the bad doesn't begin to outweight the good that Sammy brought to the Cubs. I never got the feeling that Sammy was giving less than 100% when he was on the field and his love of the game was infectious.

Then there is the homerun race in 1998 between Sammy and Mark McGwire. In hindsight, I feel a little dirty being so excited and following so closely the daily contest between those two. The steroid allegations make it seem less special than it seemed at the time. But there is no denying that at the time, it was very special. I still have fond memories of following the HR chase with my daughter who was just three years old at the time. It was her first real introduction to baseball and she still loves it today.

Read Rob's article here. It's a great read.